In December I had the opportunity to sit down with Coulthard, and in our discussion, he is describing how the granting of certain rights by the state works perfectly within colonialism by effectively masking the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Durocher, a Metis grandmother and activist who I know within the Downtown Eastside community, joins our conversation and is nodding along.

Debt, like many things in our capitalist system, is something that people generally believe is an individual problem. But in our current economic state, debt just another part integrated into a system designed to fail. It is a systemic issue that activists need to collectively resist and reject. The Debt Resisters' Operational Mannual was created by the writers, activists and academics at Strike Debt. It aims to give folks plain language tools to resist debt and offers up creative alternatives.

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I don't mean of the belly laugh sort, but rather the ironic variety (although a decent argument could be made that many elements of modern work life have the humour quotient of a Three Stooges skit).

There have been rallies over the past months to support unionized cleaners working in Cadillac Fairview buildings in downtown Vancouver who are paid in the $12 per hour range. Cadillac, self-described as "one of North America's largest investors, owners and managers of commercial real estate" and owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, has given its former $12 per hour cleaning contract to another supposedly unionized company that pays its workers $10.50 per hour.

This autumn, The Theatre for Living (Headlines Theatre) presents Corporations in our Heads, an audience-led play that is completely absent of scripts or designated actors. Its main mission: to provide insight into the various relationships we have with corporate culture and control in our daily lives.

Though impossible to clearly articulate, as the content is improvisational and ranges night to night, Artistic and Managing Director David Diamond explains "theatre is a language that belongs to everyone."

Aaron Leonard recently corresponded with Professor Mann via email to examine the book and dig deeper into some of the popular explanations it offers. This is an edited version of their original conversation.

Don't

There is a significant and to my mind problematic limitation that is increasingly being placed on Indigenous efforts to defend our rights and our lands. This constraint involves the type of tactics that are being represented as morally legitimate in our efforts to defend our land and rights as Indigenous peoples on the one hand, and those which are viewed at as morally illegitimate because of their disruptive and extra-legal character on the other.

Don't

"I don't get my authority from this preexisting paradigm which is quite narrow and only serves a few people. I look elsewhere for alternatives that might be of service to humanity."

In an interview with BBC Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman, comedian Russell Brand lays into a discussion about political apathy, democratic inequality and capitalist institutions, bringing a mainstream light to the messages of marginalized people.